The Cross and the Shamrock eBook

Paul and uncle Jacob, with whom he was of late becoming
a great favorite, retired for the evening to the latter’s
bed room, where Paul was accustomed to read aloud
for him out of his Catholic books of instruction.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PRYING FAMILY.

The farms of the brothers Prying were situated in
a beautiful valley. On the one side were the
Vermont snow-crowned and cloud-capped mountains, rising
up like eternal ramparts against all eastern hostile
incursions of the elements. On the other, or
the western side, were the pleasant hills of York
State, which, in contrast with the mountains of Vermont,
looked like so many tumuli of the deceased Indian giants
of ages gone by. In the centre between, in a
southerly course, ran a clear, silver brook, well
stocked with an abundance of trout and other species
of the finny tribe. On both sides of this stream
were situated the extensive farms of the Pryings.
They had abundance of woods from the elevated extremes
on either side. The rivulet constituted a cooling
retreat for cattle in summer, and in spring afforded
an abundant source of irrigation to the rich meadows
on both sides.

Ephraim’s family, where Paul and Bridget remained,
consisted of Mrs. Prying, Amanda, the senior daughter,
Melinda, and Mary, called after her grandmother, who
was Irish. There were besides, Calvin, Wesley,
Cassius, and Cyrus, younger members of the family,
together with old uncle Jacob, an unmarried brother
of Ephraim, the head of this family. We may as
well here remark that Mr. Prying was, from the beginning,
averse to receive these orphans into his house, seeing,
as he said, “that he wanted no more such hands
as they were;” but Amanda persuaded him, in
order to have the glory of being instrumental in the
conversion of the “interesting orphans,”
as they were called.

There were frequent friendly contentions in the family
to see who would have the special care of the new
comers. Little Mary insisted on having Bridget
to sleep with herself instead of her sister Melinda,
whom she wanted to dispossess. Wesley, Calvin,
and Cassius wanted to monopolize Paul, especially
on Sundays, when each of them were about to separate
for their respective meetings to hear the preacher.

“Father,” said Calvin, “won’t
Paul come with me? Our minister, Mr. Gulmore,
is such a clever preacher, and our Sunday school the
best and the largest.”

“Well, brothers,” said Cassius, “I
don’t see the use of your jawing about it.
But I say Paul had better come to our meeting—­the
very name, Universalist, signifying the same with
Catholic, as I was telling Paul yesterday, while a-fishing,
and as our minister said.”

“Well, boys,” said uncle Jacob, laughing,
“my advice to you is; to see first whether Paul
is willing to go with any of ye to yer meetings.
I think his mind is made up to stay at home, like
myself.”